… the average game in the 2007 season lasted 3:23:04. That’s up from 3:21:17 in 2005 and 3:07:24 in 2006, when the controversial 3-2-5e rule not only dramatically cut the length of games, but the number of plays.

The ever ready cfbstats.com has the game times up for all the games played in the SEC except for Kentucky’s and Tennessee’s, so I thought I’d take a look at the impact of the new rules on them. Here’s the list:

Alabama – 3:23

Arkansas – 3:03

Auburn – 3:09

Florida – 3:10

Georgia – 3:13

LSU – 3:09

Mississippi – 2:56

MSU – 3:33

South Carolina – 3:14

Vanderbilt – 3:27

Seven out of the ten fell below last year’s average (how ’bout that Mississippi time!), but some of that may be attributable to blow outs. Nationally, the Illinois-Missouri slugfest ran 3:39 and Michigan-Utah went 3:33, so some of the games with more give and take took more time, as you might expect. Then again, East Carolina upset Virginia Tech in a mere 3:03 and Tulsa and UAB managed to score 67 points in three hours flat.

The real test will come with the first SEC game CBS broadcasts, but overall, I get the sense that there is some shortening of the game times going on here. Which should warm the cockles of every TV executive’s heart…

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UPDATE:Tom Dienhart doesn’t hear any complaints from the coaches he talks to about the new rules.

6 responses to “A quick look at game times”

Out of 365 days in a year we get to watch our favorite team play a grand total (if we’re lucky) of 14 days. Who the hell cares if the games last 4 hours. IYAM, an extra hour of football is alot better than most of the crap they have on TV now anyways.

Let’s not forget that during last year’s BCS telecasts, Fox went to the NFL style of going to commercial between kickoffs and the beginning of drives. That easily added at least another 10 minutes to the telecast.